Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Maiden Trip to Goa - Part 2

Part 2

We had a sound brief sleep and woke up by 7am. Refreshed ourselves, had breakfast and moved on to hit the beach. We were delighted to see the typical Goan Aunties with their cute daughters. The traffic was pretty smooth. The architecture of a Goan house were similar to the ones that we find in Kerala. I could feel the Portuguese culture in the air. We had to meet a Sailor, Nihal whom we knew from a community called the Fraud Mallus. Met him at Temptations, Vasco da Gama and it was the First Fraud Mallu Meet in Goa!

Raul was enjoying riding his babe and I did wonder why Raul should have all the fun riding his P180 in Goa. Damn! I missed my babe so much at that I hired my babes sista(A Black Avy) for the ride in Goa! We later went to the entrance of Calangute beach. The beach was crowded with lots of tourist from the west of the world and there were plenty of shacks around. We relaxed at Cheers Shack and just didn't feel like moving out from there. We were delighted by the sight of the chicks in bikinis, waterbikes and paragliding. God! I could only wish we had some extra dough in our hand! With limited resource in hand, we decided to freak out the maximum. Raul ordered two cold Budweisers and I tasted it for the first time and God! I must confess it is the king of all beers! It was smooth and tasted too good.The babes around were awesome and we felt that we were in some kind of paradise. The chicks in bikinis were sheer pleasure to watch. Man oh Man what abs they had! Babes were abundant and that happiness could be seen on our face. We were literally drooling there as if we have never seen chicks before! We discussed seriously, why should we spend a fortune to go to the Miami beach when we can find such a place which fits our bill. We could see the tourist queing up for a ride on the waterbike and God! it was so tempting that we decided to blow up our limited resource but luckily the waterbike ride costed us INR 200/- per head. Raul took the ride first and he was going so fast that he definitely beat the snail! I was under the impression that there was some technical fault with the waterbike. I realised later when I was on the waterbike that it has a clutch kind of thing which acts like the accelerator. I could feel my adrenaline rush up when this Yamaha waterbabe was flying on the sea. Oh Man! I did feel like owning a waterbike for myself! The ride was one of a kind and it was breathtaking. I just didn't want to come back to the shore. Damn! I felt like a sea cowboy when I had that ride on the Yamaha waterbabe! The paragliding was also tempting but we had to restrain ourselves from being bankrupt and beg at the streets of Goa!

Amidst all this fun, something was creeping up in our mind and we wanted to see the location where Dil Chahte Hai was shot. I don't remember how we managed to get back to our senses from the maya world and we moved on to the Chapora fort. We reached the spot and it was like we had to climb up. It was fun walking up all the way to the fort. As we climb up, the scenary around gets beautiful and amazing. As we walked inside the fort, we saw some couple having fun and the lady was in state of nirvana. That place was too cool. We were bowled over by the beautiful scenery. We could see the beautiful Arabian Sea and the Lagoon. We had good photo session. We were happy and proud of ourselves. Sang songs from Dil Chahte Hai and ran around like kids.

It was about 4pm and it was getting too late for us and it was high time we started moving back to Bangalore. I had to give the bike back and so we decided to do so and leave Goa. I was in a hurry to give back the bike and I was happily cruising around the roads of Goa. Raul was ahead of me and I was following him. I got held up in the traffic and had some problem starting the bike. Just before I could start off to my ride, A bear chest foreigner in a rented Honda Activa stops right in front of me blocking my way. I thought I was in trouble and this chap is here to fleece money out of me. I was quickly trying to recall where I messed up with this chap and trying to correlate why me! He started asking me questions as if he was some cop and I was reluctant in giving away any information to him. He asked me whether I have a mobile and I was cautious thinking that he was a over smart tourist and wants to make a ISD call from my mobile! lol. He asked me "Do you have a mobile" I said, "Yes!" What mobile do you have? I said Sony Ericsson, then he asked me whether its a camera phone, I said yes and then asked him a question as to why on earth is he asking me all these questions and then explains that he found a mobile phone on the road and saw that falling off from my jacket! I was stunned and I had no words to thank him. I did feel so dumb and felt embarrassed of thinking otherwise about this gem of a gentleman! Some how I managed to thank him and appreciate his gesture. I thanked good God that there still exists such good men. I should admit that I was in a hurry as time was ticking by and all I wanted to do was to give back the bike to its owner and in this process I did not even realise that my Sony Ericsson K550i fell off my denim jack!

I then caught up with Raul who was waiting for me ahead and we moved on to give the rented bike back to its owner. I told Raul about this incident and he was asking me to be careful with my mobile and suggested me to keep it in the bag we were carrying. We then were charting out on the route we had to take back to Bangalore and wanted to check the road map which was in the bag. We were just about to realise the biggest blunder we ever did in this trip. We lost the bag while taking the snaps in the fort! The bike papers were in the bag and we were clueless as to where we kept the bag. Damn! We rushed back to the fort and we were keeping our fingers crossed to get the bag back and I was praying to God for another gentleman to appear and give us our bag. We checked every place around the fort and all those places where we took the snaps. We realised we were in deep shit with no bike papers and so we decided to register a FIR at the Anjuna police station. We lost our cool and we searched around for a police station and circling around the same area over and over again. Finally we found the Police station and after an hour and a half of waiting in the police station, we got the FIR copy which stated that we lost the Bike documents and the that the investigation is going on. I was fretting and fuming with anger. This incident irritated me to the core and spoiled my fun of being in Goa. Raul was calm and composed and probably he was bitten by "Chill Maadi" bug, staying in Bangalore for a while. We had lost a lot of our valuable time and energy running behind this unseen hindrance.

Time was running out and our plans were in a complete mess. According to the actual plan we were supposed to be half way down on the Golden Quadrilateral Road. We had to re-plan and most of all I had to control my anger and calm down. Went to the most popular shack and thought we would chill there by gazing some hot chicks but unfortunately, the restaurant just opened up and we were the first customers there. Raul could sense me feeling irritated and we decided to move out from there. We had skipped the lunch and fatigue was showing upon us. We had dinner at some typical Goan restaurant. Then we did little bit of shopping and purchased a Goan dress for mom and a scarf for covering my face.

We hit the highway and we took a new route. We had to go through a forest again and we had to cross a hilly region. This stretch of road is something which we both wouldn't forget in our entire life time. The temperature started dipping and we could feel the warmth we had in us going away slowly and steadily. I Was enjoying the ride as the road we chose had sharp turns. I was controlling myself from the cold when after some time I just couldn't handle the cold blowing wind that was making my spine shiver. It was foggy and I was not accustomed riding on a P180 with its dim light. I could not see any pothole ahead and was wondering how Raul goes for night rides on her. I switched over and chose to be the pillion rider for this stretch of road because of poor visibility. We were not able to go at a good pace because of the fog, dust, potholes and the sharp turns. Luckily a tipper truck passed by us which was setting the pace for us. We followed this tipper which was going at a good speed. We could feel a bit warmer by following the tipper. Wonder whether it was the tipper lorry's warm engine or the exhaust. We covered a good distance with the help of this tipper. We stopped after overtaking the truckers at a dark place, we were shivering and I could feel my bones chilled. Raul's feet was numb despite wearing on a Woodlands. We realised that once we halt to warm up, it becomes very difficult for us to cope up with the cold weather that follows on! We exchanged the jackets and gloves as Raul is known as Polar Bear and he boasts of withstanding cold weather.

Little did I realise that fatigue had caught up on me and I was dozing off as a pillion rider. Told Raul to have some tea or something warm at the next available tea shop and after a long chilling ride we found a tea shop and had tea. This hot tea was a life giver, at that point of time my elixir of life! Damn! I could feel the tea go right inside my stomach. We just didn't like time running ahead of us. Our only concern was to catch the earliest bus/train to Chennai in order to be with Dad on his B'day. After each tea break I couldn't tolerate the cold at all and I felt as I were in the Arctic Circle. One might understand my plight as I was used and comfortable with the Chennai heat unlike Raul who is used to Bangalore's cool weather. I tried riding the bike, but my elbow was aching and so was my shoulder. This was the result of riding Raul's P180 which I'm not accustomed with. Got so used to riding my Avenger that other bikes could just not suit my riding. Despite wearing a Studd Bikers leather gloves, my fingers went numb and I could hardly fold my fingers to change the gear. I did put myself to the extreme limit and I could feel the point where I could not carry forward. I was torturing myself by continuing to ride. I was in no position to take on the cold wind directly on me. I decided not to ride until the sun sets in. We had major argument to end the ride and take up a room and start in the morning. Raul would not give in and confidently said that he would ride as much as he can in the night and cover as much distance as possible. Luckily for me, on the way we came across a town where we had some coffee. Raul lost his Polaroid Fastrack Shades at the push cart coffee shop. The coffee was of no help to me. I was literally frozen. On the way, I saw a man burning up an old tyre and I forced Raul to stop there, the warmth from this tyre pyre was so cozy, felt as if I were in front of a bonfire in the Himalayas. I just didn't want to come from there. But as and when I see my watch, I felt the urge to reach home as soon as possible. We were close by to the Quadrilateral and Raul assured me of the warmth we could get from the highway road. I made up my mind and felt not to think about the chillness. We were one determined lot. We pepped ourselves up and charged our brains up. POSITIVE THINKING!

We reached the Quadrilateral and I thought now I could feel better but to my dismay, I could not feel any better. I decided to take it on until dawn. The dawn was nearing and I could sense some pride that I survived that harsh weather. I was controlling myself from sleeping and asked Raul to halt at the nearest Dhaba. It was almost 5.10am when we halted on the highway for some tea. There happened to be plenty of charpoy and we thought of taking rest. We ordered for some tea and it was so relaxing that I kept ordering it for more than an hour. Raul was stiff and he could hardly bend his knee. He crashed on the charpoy and it was pretty funny to see Raul sleeping as if he is still riding the bike! I had to massage his leg as he caught cramp. Raul had pushed himself to the core, his eyes were red and he definitely required sleep. I don't like to smoke and hate smokers but the thought of puffing in warm hot air, made me have more than one pack of cigarettes! I was stunned by the amount of cigarettes and tea I was having. Raul was tired and he fell off to a short nap. I could not sleep as I was completely frozen. To defrost I had ordered 12 tea and 15 cigarettes and also tried doing some push ups and sit ups! Kept puffing the cigarette and the tea and kept walking to and fro inside the dhaba.

I could feel myself re-energised and we moved on to reach Bangalore. We decided not to stop anywhere and kept moving. I thought its going to be easy from now on but worst of all I had my brother behind me dozing off and slipping off the bike. I had to be very careful especially when I overtake. The quadrilateral was beautiful and when the sun was bright and shinning I felt as if I were superman who gets revitalised with the power of the sun's rays! We reached Bangalore by 12pm but the traffic in the city was so horrible that we felt so difficult to inch ahead. Our hope was to take the last train which leaves to Chennai in the morning but to reach the station after reaching Raul's room was highly impractical and so we could not reach Chennai as decided. We took it easy and knew how tired we were. We relaxed at Raul's room and we took a ride on Raul's friend's Yezdi.

Our friends who heard our small adventure trip were envying us and they told us that they would love to join us for the ride when we go next time and so they accompanied us each time we make a plan and this was the beginning of the BIKERS FRATERNITY!